Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin is the first Irish-language RLF Fellow. She is an acclaimed singer, songwriter and author, specialising in Irish-language song and folklore. Her first song compilation A Stór is a Stóirín (Gael Linn, 1994) has become a landmark album. Since then, she has recorded nine albums including Songs of the Scribe (Ceoltaí Eireann, 2012), which is a collaboration with the poet Ciaran Carson and the late Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney.
Her major research on the 18th-century poets, music and song traditions of Oriel was published as A Hidden Ulster in 2003. Other publications include a collection of traditional song material for young people Irish Lullaby (Shanachie, 1999), Let the Fairies In (Ceoltaí Eireann, 2013) and an illustrated song book The Magical Band (Ceoltaí Eireann, 2014).
Ní Uallacháin has been an artist-in-residence in various colleges including the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry in Queen’s University, Belfast from 2005 to 2013. Before becoming a professional musician and writer, she worked as a journalist, teacher, radio producer and presenter. She was the first traditional musician to receive a major arts award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and is the recipient of many other cultural and academic awards. Her research also includes the keening tradition, lullabies and devotional songs in the Irish tradition. She lives in south Armagh where she continues with her work on the renewal of the Gaelic song tradition of Oriel and Breifne.
